SSIDDetector - This is a simple mechanism I use to track when my cars are nearby the house. While GPS detector work great, for when you have a minute or two to detect the change, SSIDDetector can be picked up within seconds. Which is ideal when you are driving down the driveway, and want the front lights to turn on. You can use any cheap portable router, that you can plug into your car. I've used it quite sucecssfully with the HooToo and TPLink variety of models. Depending upon how you use the car, I would suggest fixing one of your 12v adapters in the car, to be permanently on. Each device is given it's own SSID to track, so track as many cars as you wish.

Thanks for fixing the link. I have downloaded the plugin, but it is unclear exactly how this is supposed to work. I believe I need to place a Wi-Fi router in my car so presumably something in the house (The Mac I run Indigo on?) will detect the availability of that network. Is that correct?

If the above assumption is correct, is there a way to detect the SSID if the Mac is not near the garage, like in a basement, etc?

may be another way to use wifi to detect presence:-use a $5 ESP8266 and setup to connect to your wifi router. -Put into car, charge through 12 V USB charger , and convert down to 3.3 V (constant on). -Then every time you come home it will connect to your router.-Then you can use smartphone or fingscan, or SSIDetector ... to detect a new device on network.

The advantages:- very cheap- easy to setup- wifi has decent range- does not go to sleep like phones.

I like the ESP8266 idea. however if you do use that method, you'll want to use a different plugin which detects a particular MACID on your network. There are a few of those already.It's true that it's possible to drain your battery using this method.

SSIDDetector does work via Wi-Fi on your device which is running Indigo on. You should note that your Mac which is running Indigo, has one of the best antennas for WiFi, and in my case, my car is detected up to 1000 feet away. Now granted in my case I've got a direct line of sight between my car and the computer running Indigo. You can buy an external USB WiFi antenna, to hook into your computer and put it up on the ground level. It should be noted that the broadcast frequency for SSID's on WiFi is not the same used for transmitting data, as well as many routers broadcast their SSID's with more power. Unfortunately that is not usually publicly available information, and you will need to try different routers.

I like the ESP8266 idea. however if you do use that method, you'll want to use a different plugin which detects a particular MACID on your network. There are a few of those already....

I think an ideal solution would be something like the ESP8266 coupled to an Arduino or a Single Board Computer (like the Raspberry-Pi) with a simple program to automatically send a packet to an Indigo plugin (listening on a TCP port) whenever it connected to the home SSID*. That would avoid the time lag associated with detecting the availability of a new device on the network.

Detecting loss of the device would be harder. But, timing is usually not as critical on departure, and you could just send a heartbeat once a minute and the plugin could detect a loss of heartbeat.

*Of course, the same thing could be done with a little code on a smartphone as well. Anyone into developing the applet for that?

There are already solutions for detecting your phone as it shows up on the local network. Which is great, however it frequently requires you to wake up your phone, and then takes some 30 seconds to get signed onto your network. Frequently I found I was waiting for, or beating the automation. With SSID Detector I cannot seem to beat it.

With the right router the phone does not need to wake up to be recognized. When in power save mode it still talks to the wifi router every millisecond. It is still associated but does not answer pings etc. This mechanism reacts in ~ 15 second when coming into range (the phone only scans available networks every xx seconds when not associated) and leaving range in about 1 second. As long as it is in range it will still be recognized as associated

To get to 1-5 seconds to detect a phone arriving would require to switch the phone screen on.

Wifi devices would need to constantly try to access the home wifi network. That would take a lot of energy.

As for other devices they normally ( Bluetooth and similar) try to connect ~ every ten seconds the examples are Apple beacons or mother/ cookie devices.

A nice setup is a combination of these devices. Beacon or mother/Cookies +Asus router + wifi phone + iFind With this combination you get the best of all worlds

Thanks for the hardwork with the plugin - looks interesting and have found small routers - such as usb powered ones

But, as aside, have some of you tried geofency? (note the fency spelling). It's a geolocation iOS app - it appears to also use wifi networks and GPS to update location. Ie. I arrive within wifi range of home wifi - indigo is updated that I'm home (via web hook/restful API or beecon plugin) immediately. Other GPS locations take a few minutes.

The key is it does use wifi/ssid available to update location - for me there is no battery drain that I've noticed and indigo knows I'm home with a few seconds of getting in my wifi range - plenty of time to turn lights on etc.

I picked up a TP-Link router as pictured in the above post.I am having issues getting this Indigo plugin to see the TP-Link router which is running in wireless bridge mode.Can anyone share some insight as to how to get this working?